Condensed Matter theory group seminar

Polaritonics: Tuning Material Properties with Single Photons

Europe/Rome
1/2-2 - Aula C (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio Marzolo)

1/2-2 - Aula C

Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio Marzolo

100
Description
In 1958 Purcell demonstrated how the spontaneous emission rate of a dipole can be modified by engineering its electromagnetic environment [1], an insight which is now at the core of many widespread photonic devices. In this talk I will explore the question of whether and which other properties of materials, beyond their emission rate, can be modified by placing them in a photonic resonator. This will lead us to introducing the concept of polaritons, half-light and half-matter particles [2], to exploring the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime [3], in which electromagnetic interaction becomes non-perturbative, to showing how we can bind electrons together using single photons [4], and to discussing the ultimate limit of light confinement [5] and light-matter interaction [6].
 
[1] Spontaneous emission probabilities at radio frequencies, E. M. Purcell, Phys. Rev. 69, 681 (1946) [2] Polaritonics: from microcavities to sub-wavelength confinement, D. Ballarini and S. De Liberato, Nanophotonics 8, 641 (2019)
[3] Ultrastrong coupling between light and matter, A. Frisk Kockum et al., Nat. Rev. Phys. 1, 19 (2019)
[4] Excitons bound by photon exchange, E. Cortese et al., Nature Physics 17, 31 (2021)
[5] Polaritonic nonlocality in light–matter interaction, S. Rajabali et al., Nature Photonics 15, 690 (2021)
[6] Light-matter decoupling in the deep strong coupling regime: The breakdown of the Purcell effect, S. De Liberato, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 016401 (2014)
Organised by

Amos Maritan and Luca Salasnich